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Injury Update: DeMarre Carroll's status for Game 6? Questionable

Can't get much more vague than that.

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Buried under all the highs of Game 5 -- the glorious deep Kyle Lowry 3, the mad maniac rush of Bismack Biyombo going end to end to end, DeMar DeRozan's shoelace therapy, the ornate joy of watching Dwyane Wade's sadness -- was the unfortunate injury to the Raptors' DeMarre Carroll.

Here's a visual reminder of the fairly innocuous play from late in the third quarter:

This would be the last we'd see of Carroll in Game 5. We feared the worst.

Today, Carroll's status has been upgraded to the most vague of definitions:

On the plus side: no breaks, no serious damage, no surgery. On the negative side: questionable? What's questionable? How questionable?

With Carroll out for perhaps Game 6, the Raptors' already depleted front line will have to rely even more on the Conan-esque efforts of Biyombo, plus Patrick Patterson and whichever forward Dwane Casey decides to trot out next. (Scola again? Bebe experimentation? Jason Thompson redux?)

The unfortunate reality here is that with Carroll out, the Raptors lineup and defensive flexibility is seriously hampered. I'm of the opinion that Carroll hasn't exactly been super on the defensive end this series (he's had trouble staying in front of Joe Johnson, Wade and Goran Dragic at different moments) but he's definitely a worker. And any Raptor who can hit an outside shot is a valuable Raptor at this juncture.

Fortunately for the Raptors, due to some bizarre injury calculus, the Heat may be without their small/power forward Luol Deng who hurt his wrist at some point during the second half. This bizarre injury symmetry hurts Miami's ability to run out flexible small lineups, too. In conclusion, the playoffs are dangerous to your health.

Hopefully the Raps will get some good news by Friday (the 13th!).